Back to school is a time for new beginnings, but elementary and secondary schools across Canada are still facing the ongoing issue of teacher shortages.
“[The] stress and frustration that I know is going to come when I won’t have the resources I need, or don’t have the support, because the system is not robust — it’s not sustainable,” said Gurpreet Bains, a learning support teacher at a high school in Surrey, B.C.
“It’s just running on the kind-heartedness of the teachers,” she told The Current’s guest host Susan Ormiston.
Teachers in B.C. are not the only ones dealing with understaffed public schools.
Two weeks ago, Quebec’s Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced that 5,704 teaching positions were still vacant.
The reasons for the shortage in Canada are numerous. In Quebec, a growing student population has caused challenges in the school system. In B.C., the decline in teachers has been linked to a range of issues including rising housing costs and teachers retiring early during the pandemic.